About 20 cars on the mixed-freight train, which originated
in Thunder Bay, Ontario, went off the tracks in the White River
area at about 7:50 a.m. East Coast time today, Ed Greenberg, a
Canadian Pacific spokesman based in Minneapolis, said by e-mail.
Two of the cars leaked an estimated four barrels of oil. The
release has been contained, he said.

The derailment was the second in a week for the Calgary-based company to result in a crude-oil spill. Fourteen cars of a
Canadian Pacific train went off the tracks in west-central
Minnesota on March 27, releasing about 15,000 gallons. That
crude was being shipped to the Chicago area from western Canada,
Greenberg said at the time.

“These are separate incidents,” Greenberg said by
telephone today. “For the volume of commodities that we handle
and for everything that people use in their daily lives and
businesses, the rail industry is a safe industry.”

The spills come as Canadian Pacific is trying to meet
rising demand for crude from shippers. The railroad carried
53,500 carloads of crude oil last year, a 19-fold increase from
2010, Jane O’Hagan, the company’s chief marketing officer, said
Feb. 13 in a presentation to investors.

Boosting Loads

This year, Canadian Pacific may move about 70,000 carloads
of crude oil, an amount that the company wants to double or
triple in the long-term, O’Hagan said at the time, without
providing a specific time line.

The train that derailed today was carrying multiple
products, including lumber, Greenberg said. Several of the rail
cars were empty, he said.

Canadian Pacific is looking into options that would allow
it to deliver products from the train on alternative routes,
Greenberg said.

“Our priority at this time is to ensure our response
protocols are in place and that we’re ensuring we’re taking the
necessary steps to clean up the area where the incident took
place,” he said.